3 Key Considerations for Conversion Campaigns

In any digital campaign, conversions matter. A conversion could be as straightforward as a prospect providing an email address or making a purchase. Although the cost of the conversion will vary, there is value in all conversions that come from your programmatic campaigns. Every digital tactic contributes in some way to paving the road to drive an acquisition or conversion.

These 3 key insights will help you stay on top of your conversion campaigns.

1. Conversion Campaigns Are Dynamic

Although consumer journeys are unique, there is a common path that we can recognize. For example, if someone is in the market to purchase a new car, the conversion point is the car purchase. The purchase journey, however, is more complex, as there is a network of path possibilities that could lead from the initial idea to the actual purchase.

Based on the diversity of the audience and their unique journey, a conversion campaign needs to be dynamic. Marketers are always looking for standard practices: what is the best or right way to build a campaign? Traditionally, marketers would take a series of prospecting campaigns containing a pool of users, and those who have engaged in the past would then be retargeted, since they are more desirable.

A simple campaign structure would look something like this, with prospecting slowly leading to retargeting:

Retargeting sits at the end of the campaign diagram, but shouldn’t always be the last campaign tactic. Since users are no longer following a linear path of discovery, the singular campaign flow is not ideal. Retargeting or conversion campaigns can and should be incorporated at any point in your campaign strategy. You may run some prospecting, then retargeting, and back to prospecting to fuel additional conversion efforts.

2. Conversion Campaigns Require Careful Planning

The tactics leading into your conversion campaigns are meant to influence a decision. First, consider every ad as a touch point. Think about how you are approaching and choosing your target audience and what the flow of ads look like each time they see a new one. You only have a few seconds to capture their attention, so make it count. As you consider all the ads in a connected flow, you should be deploying sequential messaging. This means that each new ad will continue to tell the story to build a full picture.

As you think about the story you’re telling, keep the 3 Rs in mind:

• Right Audience: Focus on the ideal consumers, but continue to be flexible. Throw away any preconceptions of who you think would be the only people to get conversions from—your audience may surprise you!
• Right Message: Be strategic with the messaging. If you are targeting different audiences, you need different creatives to entice and cater to them.
• Right Placement: Consider the device and the time of day. Specifically, identify what device your audience is using, and when they are using it, to know what placements are best for the campaign. 

The key takeaway here? One size does not fit all.

3. Conversion Campaigns Require a Test Mindset

There are many layers to a conversion campaign. So how do you know what works best? By testing!

In the digital ecosystem, everyone is fighting for attention. The average North American sees about 4,000 ads every day and it’s difficult to know what people respond to best. Conversion campaigns need to consistently be tested and repeated infinitely, so that the results and learnings can be applied—and reapplied—to future campaigns. 

Start by understanding the product, because there is a relationship between the product and driving behaviour.

When considering this relationship, you want to look at the involvement, lead time, affordability and any correlations between the audience and the product. You can use these elements to develop strategies for targeting and campaign setup. 

• Involvement: How involved is the user in the buying process? Are they highly involved and actively searching for a solution? Or is their involvement passive? There’s no immediate need, but they might be open to hearing about a new product or service.
• Lead Time: How much of a gap is there between the realization of the need and the actual purchase? This is usually correlated with the involvement, but differs depending on the product.
• Affordability: What does the price look like? Will the product be in the price range for your audience?
• Correlations: Is there any connection between what you’re offering and other events? This could be life events like buying furniture for a new home, or seasonal events like planning a winter vacation. 

Conversion campaigns cannot be a simple copy and paste solution. There’s a multitude of approaches to consider, and the strategies are limitless. You need to be willing to explore and test your campaigns to really understand what tactics work best for your use case. If you’re looking for one key take away, it’s that testing has to be approached with an open mindset, and never settle, always keep learning and iterating.

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